Pages

Sunday, July 4, 2010

From the publisher: We’re still going to TAM

By Chris Olson

This week, we’re sending a team of reporters to James Randi’s The Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas. Our columnist, Dale Onofrey, will address their HAM Panel, and he’ll also meet with Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcasters to formally present our $5 Dollar Challenge to them.

Critics say we shouldn’t waste our time with skeptics. They’ve been debunking UFOs for years, and people still believe. Why should we care?

Why? Because we stand by our stories. In our 45 year history, we’ve only retracted one story. (Sorry Rosie.) One story! Still, we’re not willing to rest on our laurels. While one site only watches board meetings on TV, and another won’t allow open public comments on their web site, we’re willing to face our critics. All the SGU has to do is debunk one of our stories, and we’ll give them $5. That’s it.

Since we’ve issued our challenge, they haven’t directly replied. SGU member Rebecca Watson has debated us through her web site, Skepchick, and we respect her for that. The others started by ignoring us. Now they’ve hacked YouTube to make it appear that our last challenge video only has 15 views. That can’t be right because Dale swears he’s watched it more than 15 times.

I called Dr. Steven Novella to try to work out a compromise. He started off by saying that there were many reasons the SGU couldn’t accept our challenge. One of his brothers interrupted him.

“Steve, you’re making this more complicated than it should be.” The man took the phone from Dr. Novella.

“No way.” Replied Bob. “They said Jay was going to tell Dale to ‘Shut the (expletive deleted) up.’ So I didn’t fulfill their stupid prophecy.”

“They can’t tell the difference between you two. So they’ll say their psychic made a mistake and count this as a hit.”

“Dude no way! The difference between us is--”

Then we were disconnected.

Well Jay or Bob, I am going to count this as a hit, and our psychics predict that you will be having dinner with Dale this week.

“The Brook” is a weird and magical place, and we will challenge those who say otherwise, no matter where they may be holding their convention. To paraphrase Elyse Anders, its skeptic season and we’re wearing orange vests!

Also in The Babbler:

Claar: The Babbler won’t mention ‘Tunes of Glory’ marching in the Wheaton parade

No comments:

Welcome to The Bolingbrook Babbler

From illegal space aliens to the local weredeer population, we cover the stories the mainstream media won't cover! Since 1965, we've always told the truth about Bolingbrook, and its surrounding communities. To contact the webmaster, send your e-mail to bolingbrookbabbler@gmail.com. The Babbler reserves the right to print all messages.